Things Moto Guzzi

The Moto Guzzi factory opens its gates for a tour of the museum every weekday at 3pm. Our friend Nich arrived at the campsite, unloaded his bike and we made the short ride to the factory in time to join the other Guzzisti waiting outside.

We had our obligatory photograph taken outside the gates and then went into the factory.

The museum is on two floors and contains a large number of Moto Guzzis from the very first one built by Carlo Guzzi to modern machines, although there is a bias towards the older machines. Unfortunately for us our guide only spoke Italian, but we all enjoyed the tour and our only complaint was that it was too short at just over an hour.

Spot the Wed-n-Fled sticker

Very shortly after buying the V7’s we had decided that we needed some windscreens for them, as riding an unfaired bike at motorway speeds is tiring and in the rain is a much wetter experience. Paul at Speedaway motorcycles had been trying to get us a pair of screens but not been able to locate any suitable ones for us before we had left the UK. Having checked with Paul by text that he had not had any luck since we had left, we decided to try some of the local Guzzi shops. We went to Agostini’s,  the official Mandello Moto Guzzi dealer, and of course had to add a Wed-n-Fled sticker to their Guzzisti visitors board.

Agostini’s had five genuine Moto Guzzi screens in stock and also some pattern ones. He couldn’t understand why we had had any difficulty obtaining them in the UK although another shop I spoke to did say that they had heard that there were difficulties getting the screens in the UK. After a quick session of holding them up to the bikes we decided that the genuine Moto Guzzi ones were worth the few extra Euros because of their shape, quality and excellent dedicated fitting kit for the V7 Classic. We negotiated the purchase of two, which got us a decent discount and free fitting.

Agostini Mechanic after staying on to fit our screens

I had also been looking to replace the standard crossover pipe in the exhaust which runs under the gear box. The problem is that it is huge and restricts access to the gearbox oil drain plug. I saw that Agoistini’s had had a batch of much narrower crossover pipes made in stainless steel with the correct fitting for the exhaust lambda sensor. A bit more haggling and a pair of those was also added to the list, again discounted and no charge for fitting. Time was getting on and the shop was due to close but the parts guy had a quick chat with the mechanic in the workshop, who agreed to fit both screens and crossover pipes whilst we waited in order to save us having to come back the next day. Excellent service.

As soon as we rode the bikes it was immediately apparent that the screens were very effective and had been well worth buying. I also thought that the bikes sounded and felt a bit crisper with the new crossover pipes on, but that may well be wishful thinking.

I later visited another bike shop called Stucchi, where I discovered that they had made the crash bars and racks fitted to our bikes. They were very helpful, getting an employee who spoke English to come down from the office to serve me. I was able to get a pair of genuine side panel stickers for my Le Mans, without having to spend an arm and a leg.

Afterwards I popped into another shop called Vallassi (I think) which transported me back in time to an old british bike shop called Autocycle in Bilston. I used to regularly visit Autocycle as a 17 year old, as I had a 1967 Triumph Super Cub (a Tiger cub engine in a Bantam chassis) that I needed to keep on the road! The owner Chris was an eccentric, and the first time I visited his shop he very politely asked me to wait whilst he took a .22 rifle from behind the counter and shot a huge spider on the opposite wall. He apologised explaining that ‘he had been after the bugger for weeks’! Chris had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the hundreds of parts on the wooden shelves in his shop and Vallossi’s appeared to be just the same sort of shop with shelves of gear box parts and crankcase studs all sorted and labelled. A slice of history.

We had a second chance to visit the Guzzi factory when the Valais Moto Guzzi Club and the Leman Moto Guzzi club of Switzerland turned up in Mandello for the weekend. They had arranged a special visit on the saturday morning and we were invited to go along.

It was excellent. We had plenty of time there and the Italian guided talk was being translated into French for the Swiss so we were able to understand at least some of it.

Two of my favourites were the 3×3 tracked pick up that Guzzi built for the army and the bike that they built with skis for a record making visit to Alpine refuges in the 1930’s.

We also saw examples of the original V7, which our bikes are a modern interpretation of.

Sarah enjoying the original V7 special

I have to say that ours are proving to be an excellent choice so far. They are using a bit of oil but I spoke to a Moto Guzzi mechanic who said that they will use progressively less oil over the first 10,000 miles as it takes that long to properly run them in. He also insisted that we use 10-60 oil not 10-40 oil as the engines do run hot.

I only had model airplanes hanging from the ceiling in my room as a kid

Mandello del Lario

Panorama of Lake Como

On previous trips to Europe I had tried to squeeze in a trip to the Moto Guzzi factory but, for one reason or another, it didn’t come off. So now I can’t quite believe that we are camping by Lake Como in Mandello del Lario just down the road from the Moto Guzzi factory.

View from Bar Paradiso terrace towards the mountains

The storm had moved on in the night leaving us bathed in sunshine and gentle steam as everything dried out. The Bar Paradiso has a roof terrace with a wonderful view across Lake Como to the mountains on the other side and we were sat there enjoying an ice cream when I heard the roar of an engine from the lake. I went to the edge of the terrace and was rewarded with the sight of a float plane, it looked like a sea otter, taking off from the lake. Unfortunately I was not quite quick enough with the camera and only got a shot of the tail of the plane and it’s wake as it disappeared behind some trees.

We walked into the centre of town and had Panini’s for lunch outside a lovely street-side cafe, accompanied by a really nice bottle of the local white wine, all for a few Euros.

Tent and Tarp

Once back at the site we decided to set up our tarp for the first time. The plan was to use it to cover the tent to help if there were further storms and to give us somewhere to sit sheltered from the rain or sun. It took a bit of doing as we both had definite ideas of the best way to put it up but I think that our first attempt went well. V7’s make particularly sturdy, if somewhat expensive, tent pegs!

At the campsite we met a Finnish biker with a Moto Guzzi V11 Le Mans and a Dutch Couple with a 1956 Moto Guzzi single, all of whom had been to Mandelo del Lario a number of times before.

In the Old Town

As a result of talking to them and others we got lots of ideas of good places to visit, great rides to enjoy and where the best restaurants and bars were.

Sarah, Nich and I decided to get on our bikes and go out and explore. We had a great ride through some fantastic lakeside and mountain scenery. Our hairpin training in Switzerland definitely came in useful!

This is a beautiful area and I can certainly see why some people keep on coming back to enjoy and explore it.

Switzerland to Italy

It was time to leave Switzerland for a couple of very good reasons: 1) it was blowing the budget even more than the rest of the trip (beautiful country, not cheap!), and 2) we’d been in touch with our friend, Nich, who was planning on getting to Mandello del Lario in Italy on Friday so he could visit the Moto Guzzi factory, and did we want to meet up? The answer to that was a resounding yes, so on Thursday morning we packed the bikes up, gave the SatNav our destination, and were off.

Time to pack up and go...

We had had some debate about which route to take… The SatNav was offering up the quick-but-dull route on motorways through Italy after crossing the Alps via the Saint-Bernard tunnel. The Saint-Bernard pass has quite a reputation as a fun and twisty one to ride, but we’d ridden a fair amount of twisties over the last few days, and Tony really wanted to ride through one of the big tunnels. We ummed and ahhed for a while, and eventually agreed to go for the tunnel. After all, we still had a lot of mountains to ride up ahead! After that we would play it by ear (or road!) and see how we felt after getting into Italy.

Planning to ride a little more safely than this...

The gloomy weather forecast was proved wrong, as after packing up under a few clouds, the skies cleared to another sunny day. The road leading up to Saint-Bernard was a glorious one, full of bends and twisties, and even the hairpins were easy-peasy after the roads we’d ridden with Jean-Maurice.

There be snow on them thar hills!

This was a main trunk road after all, with full-sized HGV’s driving it, so the hairpins had plenty of room for manoeuver. We played leap-frog with one of them, as we had to stop and take some pictures en-route, and each time he would overtake us, ready for us to go past him at the next appropriate moment.

Uh-oh, he's sneaking up behind us again - take the darned picture!

We got to the final decision point where the road branched off for the pass, and carried straight on the tunnel. We had no idea how much it would cost, but figured it would be worth it just for the experience, let alone the saved fuel and time (although we know, we know, we missed the views and a great pass to ride this way!). In we went and pulled up to the toll gate, where Tony shelled out 17.5 Swiss Francs per bike. Italian customs waved us on through and we rode into the depths. And kept riding, and riding, and riding. 4 miles on and we were just coming out of the tunnel proper, but there were still another several miles of gallery before we emerged back out into the light. It really was an interesting ride, and I’m glad that we took the decision to go that way, for all that we missed out on the pass.

Into Italy and more twisty turny roads down out of the mountains. We were stuck behind a truck for a goodly amount of the time, which was a tad frustrating as there were very few places where overtaking was allowed. Eventually we saw a gap, as did the driver, who kindly drove over to the right to allow us past. We swooped our way down the rest of the bends, which held no fear for me after the roads of the last few days. Wish I could say the same for the Italian drivers, however, who more than lived up to their reputation!

We hopped on to the motorway so we could get some distance under our belts, as the weather was starting to look a bit iffy and we’d had a few splodges of rain. We were doing one of those “shall we stop for waterproofs or shan’t we?” things that most bikers will be familiar with. It wasn’t made any easier by the fact that the odd laybys and rest areas were not exactly abundantly signed – it was rather a case of “There’s another one we’ve just missed, doh!”. Luckily it was nice and warm, so the odd bits of rain dried quickly and we never regretted our lack of waterproofs – indeed we would have cooked in them if we’d put them on!

We were making great time, and decided to push on to Mandello del Lario, as it looked like we’d get there in plenty of time to get the tent up and settled in. Then we reached the outskirts of Milano. At rush hour. Bloody hell. Not my favourite riding experience of the trip, that’s for sure! The traffic was truly awful, and this was just the outskirts – I dread to think what it’s like actually in the city proper. The problem for us was that the lanes were really quite narrow, so filtering with the bikes loaded up and with metal panniers was a bit of a problem. We filtered where we could, but had a couple of close scrapes and spent a goodly amount of time just stuck in the traffic, watching scooters shoe-horn their way past. And as for lane discipline, well, the less said about that the better! It seems that to drive in Italy you need the balls of a lion, a completely brass neck, and a complete lack of concern about yours or anyone elses safety! But I could be being a tad harsh here…

Spot the health and safety violation...

Suffice it to say that once we’d finally escaped from the madness that was Milano, we set off hell for leather to reach the relative safety of Lake Como. Coming into Mandello we were glad to spot a small petrol station, as we were getting close to running on fumes having not filled up since Martigny in Switzerland. The petrol pumps were attended, something I haven’t seen in years, and we caused much merriment to the lovely chap who filled our tanks, who was most approving of us riding Moto Guzzis. Mandello del Lario is the home of Moto Guzzi after all! Neither of us speak any Italian, but we still managed to communicate enough to enjoy a little banter. I asked about camping, and the one English speaker amongst the attendants came over and gave us directions – they might be scary drivers, but on first impressions, they’re lovely people! We headed off with much waving and smiling, and found our way to the campsite with ease.

There was no-one available at the camping reception, so we rode on down to the campsite and pitched the tent, sure that we could find someone to check in with and pay in the morning. Luckily we just managed to get set up before the storm that we’d heard rumbling thunder around the mountains hit the site. We finished unpacking to the sound of the rain on the tent, then took a brief walk up to the bar and restaurant on site, Bar Paradiso. We ordered our first real Italian pizzas before watching the storm from the veranda. It was most spectacular, with big flashes of lightning lighting up the sky, and huge rolls of thunder echoing around the lake. Fantastic. We’d arrived in Italy.

Saillon Thermal Baths

One of the things that attracted me to the rally in Valais (apart from the roads and the bikes of course), was the mention of opportunity to visit the thermal baths nearby. Now I’m a huge fan of an ordinary hot bath after a rally, so this was something not to be missed. We’d had a recommendation from the lovely Richard to try out the thermal baths at Saillon, which were his family’s favourites, so after a quick breakfast, we headed off.

Castle above Saillon

We hesitated at the reception desk for a while, trying to work out which entrance fee to pay, and decided on the second level package of “Carpe Diem”, as it included hammam and sauna. Off we went to the changing rooms, wondering whether the norm here was with clothes or without, as I know that in some countries it’s considered quite unhygienic to wear swimming cossies in jacuzzis and steam rooms. Peering out to the locker side of the changing cubicles I was somewhat relieved to see folk modestly clad in their bathing suits, so we donned ours and wandered in to sample the delights. First up was the indoor pool, which we quickly wandered past to some steps down to an outdoor pool. It was cleverly done, as you could walk down into the hot water before swimming out under some plastic curtains to the outside world.

One of the outside pools

Well, what can I say? Obviously we have no pictures to share with you (except these little ones I’ve blagged off their website!), but imagine this if you will: a big pool with plenty of room to swim, bubbling jacuzzi all along the far wall, various water spouts and jets, all surrounded by stunning mountain vistas. Bliss.

After we’d enjoyed the delights of this pool, we were trying to work out what we’d actually bought for our upgraded entry to “Carpe Diem”, as there were signs to the hammam and sauna village off to the side of the outdoor pool, and it seemed to be free! Hmmm. Time to investigate. Off we wandered back into the indoor pool, and looked around for some clues. Eventually we noticed a sign to “Carpe Diem”, so off we went. We used our entry tickets to gain access to the top of a large spiral staircase, walked on down and were greeted at a second reception desk. The attendant explained to us, using a combination of the French we could understand and some pictures, that my swimming cossie was OK, but Tony’s swimming shorts (of the baggy shorts variety) were forbidden, and he could either wear tight Speedo type  swimming trunks or go naked. As he didn’t have any others, the latter was the only option open to him, so out went the modesty! She handed us some fluffy white towels which she recommended that we use when walking between rooms though.

Steam room sans steam!

We wandered through into the Swiss take on an old Roman baths. There were 3 different steam rooms, with varying temperatures, levels of humidity and fragrances, indoor and outdoor saunas, a foot bathing area, and a huge jacuzzi in the middle. Ahhh, bliss! We tried out all of the rooms, and I discovered that it was actually far more comfortable going naked, as let’s face it, you’re there to sweat! I did cover my bits up for the jacuzzi though, although Tony didn’t have that option 🙂

What a wonderful place! Our favourite part had to be the jacuzzi, which had the bubbly bit like the one outside, along with various very high powered water jets under the water at different levels, so you could effectively massage most of your body from shoulders to feet.

Carpe Diem Jacuzzi pool

We must have spent about 6 hours in that bit alone, punctuated by occasional forays back around the various steam rooms. One go on the sauna was enough for us though, as neither of us enjoys the dry heat as much as the steam rooms.

After we eventually tore ourselves away from the joys of the Carpe Dium sanctuary, we discovered another couple of outdoor pools back in the main bit of the baths. One of them was another fairly leisurely place with jacuzzi and water jet bits, and there was a final pool that was the standard pool type shape, and laned for people who actually wanted to swim. Needless to say, we didn’t get around to trying that one!

Our own picture of "our" waterfall"!

Eventually, nearly 8 hours later and totally pruned, we tore ourselves away and rode off to find something to eat. We were ravenous after all that lying around, so decided to try a pizza – after all, we’d had pizza once in France and were on our way to Italy, so it seemed reasonable to try one in Switzerland for a country comparison. Very nice it was too, and we wended our way home to the tent for a good nights sleep, serenaded by the sound of the waterfall.

Camping in Valais

The Sunday of the rally dawned bright and sunny once again. When I say sunny, of course, there’s something a little different about the sun down in the valley. As we were surrounded by such big pointy mountainy things, the actual sunshine didn’t reach the valley floor until a good 2 or 3 hours after sunrise, and left a similar chunk of time before sunset. An interesting phenomenon that meant that in the Winter, folk living in the valley receive only about 20 minutes of actual direct sunlight, where higher up the mountains they got to enjoy a lot more of it. Lower temperatures with the altitude make up the difference though, so it’s all swings and roundabouts.

Then there was... just us left!

It was Tony’s turn to be a tad hungover this time, so he slept on whilst I was up and chatting to some of our new friends. A lot of folk were up mega-early and had packed and left before I was up at around 9ish (I know, early for me!), but our fellow Brits, of which there were 8 in total, all took their time to pack up so that their tents had a chance to dry in the sun from around 10am. No rain, just a heavy dew, as the weather gods had once again been kind to us with a beautiful weekend.

We took our time and made sure that we were the last tent still standing, and old rally tradition of mine that we just happened to resurrect. First on and last off, seems fair! One of the Valais club members, Jean-Maurice, had offered to take us back to his house for lunch, and very patiently waited till we’d finally finished packing and were ready for the off at the crack of 1pm.

Still waiting...

He wanted to show us some of the roads which we had missed from the ride the day before, so took the scenic route up some amazing hairpins to Lac de Champex and back round again to his small village near Verbier. Absolutely beautiful, and an interesting challenge with fully loaded bikes, even with the hints on how best to handle the hairpins that he gave us beforehand.

Yes, the water was very cold!

After a wonderful 30-odd mile ride, we came to his house and were welcomed in by his family. Veronique, Jean-Maurice’s wife, who was originally from Mauritius, had prepared a delicious Mauritian dinner which we all dived into after whetting our appetites on the ride.

The view from Jean-Maurice's veranda!

After we had completely stuffed ourselves, Jean-Maurice pulled out some maps of Switzerland and Italy, and we spent a happy hour or two plotting possible routes to and around Mandello del Lario, and looking at the options for heading over to the Stelvio pass.

We eventually took our leave and headed off to get the tent back up, as we’d decided to stay in Valais for a few days. Jean-Maurice had offered to take us on another tour around the region, so we’d exchanged phone numbers and he promised to call us later. Another place with so much to see and so little time to see it in, but we wanted to fit in what we could, including a day at the thermal baths that sounded so relaxing! We had spotted a small campsite by the waterfall on our way to Collonges for the rally, so went back there and got ourselves set up in just enough time before the light left us.

OK, so the road gets a bit twisty up ahead...

Jean-Maurice called to say that the weather forecast was good for the next day and then expected to rain on and off for three days after, so suggested that we postpone the trip to the baths so we could take our tour on the good day. We arranged to meet him in Martigny at 1.30pm, and, as we were nicely full of the meal we’d been treated to earlier, we decided on an early night so that we could be up at a reasonable hour the next day. Well, reasonable for us, anyway!

Tony enjoying the view

Monday saw us up, breakfasted and on our way in plenty of time. We met up with Jean-Maurice and off we went on what turned into a 70+ mile trip. We picked up a couple of J-M’s friends en-route, who we just happened to bump into, 2-up on their Very Purple BMW K100RS. They decided to join in the fun, and away we went, up hill and down dale, or should I say, up mountain and down more mountain! I had the SatNav on so we could track the trip, although I have now found out, 8 days later, that it seems the SatNav only saves the last 7 days, so it’s gone. Gutted! It was a wonderful day, though – we saw all sorts of amazing roads, fantastic vistas, and strange and wonderful things such as the rippley pyramids, which are indeed a natural formation.

Yes, they are actually a natural formation, or that's what they tell the tourists, anyway!

We stopped for a coffee break at a hotel in Nax, a small town perched on the side of, yes, you guessed it, a mountain, and at the juncture of 3 valleys. The break was very welcome to me, as I’d discovered that needing to go to the loo most definitely affected my riding when dealing with the twisty turnies, so the relief was two-fold!

Many miles later we all parted company and we headed off back to our campsite, tired but happy. We decided that we’d done enough riding for one day, so walked over to the restaurant attached to the campsite, and perused the menu. Not cheap, but that was something we’d come to expect in Switzerland, so when we spotted Chateaubriand on the menu, we decided, sod it, we’re on honeymoon, let’s push the boat out! This caused much amazement to the owners of the restaurant, who said, “But the English usually eat cheese omelettes!”. After a little light bantering, it turned out that in 28 years of running the place, this was the first time that any Angleterres had ever ordered Chateaubriand! Good to know that we continue to surprise and entertain as we go.

Camping by the waterfall

The meal was absolutely excellent, and the local wine that they recommended to accompany it was also delicious. We retired to bed fully replete once again. Happy days indeed 🙂

Valais Moto Guzzi Club Rally

All the Brits

Photo stops notwithstanding, it was an easy ride from Chamonix to Collonges, and we arrived on site at around 2pm. Other than Phil, a fellow Guzzi riding Brit, we were the first folk there other than the Valais club, who were still setting up. We were warmly greeted by Giorgio and Richard, who we’d been in contact with by email beforehand, and were the first to get our tent up so had our pick of the nice level sports pitch.

Nice inflatable, nice duck!

The rally was being held in the Couvert, a local community facility, like a village hall but with three open sides. It was filled with wooden tables and benches, and had kitchen and a bar which were being run by the club. There were also excellent toilet facilities on site, and even some communal showers. Superb. Party on!

After setting the tent up, the club were also organised and we went to book ourselves in. Richard, an ExPat Brit living in Switzerland, took our 15SF (10 Euros) entry fees, and in exchange gave us each a load of goodies, including a sticker, patch, free beer token, minature bottle of the local schnapps style hooch, and a bit of swiss chocolate. Needless to say that the chocolate and minatures didn’t last long.

Happy smiley people

The club had local beer on tap, but as I have never managed to aquire a taste for beer of any flavour, I asked what else was available. Now I’ve never thought of Switzerland as a wine producing nation, but we couldn’t help but notice the large quantities of grape vines clinging to the mountain sides in pretty little terraces whilst on our way into the valley, and it turns out that they do make wine, and do it rather well. They just tend to drink most of it themselves rather than export it, which seems fair to me! I partook of one of the local whites, a Fendant de Fully, which I liked so much that I partook of a bottle or three more than was good for me. Suffice it to say that a good night was had by all, it’s just a shame that it all gets rather fuzzy for me past about 1 or 2am! I do believe we were amongst the last still standing though, in true Tony and Sarah tradition.

Then there were two...

The next day I was somewhat the worse for wear. Definately too wobbly to go out on a challenging ride on twisty mountain roads, so we declined the offer of the organised run and went back to bed for a while after seeing the rest of the folk off. Saturday night was a much more sober affair, well for me, anyway. We had the opportunity to enjoy a local speciality, the Raclette. This was a simple affair, basically take half of a round of cheese (and they’re big rounds!), stick it under a little grill, and wait untill the top layer has melted and started bubbling. Scrape that on to a plate and add a new potato, a gherkin and a few pickled onions, then eat. Scrummy, but not desparately filling, and after a couple of these we moved on to the main event, a full platter of cheese, salami and walnut bread. A little more civilised than your standard rally burger van! A little more pricey, too, but this was Switzerland. We scoffed what we could manage, and ended up asking for a doggy bag for the substantial leftovers. The nice man at the cheese stall happily re-assembled the sliced cheese and packaged it all up beautifully for us.

Bit posher than your standard burger van!

The wine was going down a tad more slowly for me that night, so of course it was Tony’s turn to get a serious drinking head on. Several bottles of wine later we were chuffed to bits to be given a prize simply for attending the rally from the UK on our honeymoon – a huge bottle of the local brew in a presentation case along with a couple of matched glasses, oh, and a couple of beer mats too, just so we could keep things civilised. Long distance awards went to a lovely Danish chap, Sven, and Val from the UK, who had only passed her test a year and a half previously so was still on a restricted bike. The prizes were a minor challenge to work out how to transport back home, and we always love a challenge!

We managed to be some of the last to retire yet again, and eventually threw in the towel and headed for our tent at around 2am, tired but happy – a good rally indeed. Big thank you to the Moto Guzzi Valais club for making us so welcome and organising such a great event, highly recommended to all of you Guzzi riders out there!

PS This was my first ever non-UK rally, definately not my last!

Proving the Swiss have a sense of humour!

Into Switzerland

The view from our bedroom window

We awoke refreshed just in time to see a bunch of paravane parachutists enjoying themselves, swooping and swirling about in the clear mountain air above Chamonix. One tasty continental breakfast later, we were packing the bikes under a blue sky in bright sunshine and getting ready to set off. We have been so lucky with the weather.

In no time at all we were enjoying throwing the V7’s around some more twisty roads with stunning views and before we knew it we were at the Swiss border. We slowed down at the customs post, ready to be checked out, but no one appeared so we just rode on through. We were on our bikes in Switzerland!

We stopped to refuel and had a pleasant surprise as the petrol was much cheaper than in France. The prices were displayed in both Swiss Francs and Euros but my mental arithmatic quickly revealed that it was cheaper in Swiss Francs than Euros. I paid on my card and we decided to keep our eyes open for a cash machine so that we could pick up some Swiss Francs. No problem, after all this is Switzerland, renowned for it’s banks.

Near Martigny

We had a great ride and got to the town of Martigny, which was not too far from the village of Collonges where the Valais Moto Guzzi Club were having their rally. We had been looking out for a cash point on any likely bank looking type building since crossing the borderbut had failed miserably. Sarah pulled up in a layby outside the tourist information office and I went into the bank next door to try and get some Swiss Francs. As I walked in I realised why we hadn’t been able to find any cash machines: they keep them all safely inside. A few moments later I walked out much relieved, with our Swiss Francs in my hand. We were soon on our way again, destination the Moto Guzzi Rally.

Riding down the road from Martigny to Collonges, we had to pull over to admire a cascading waterfall that spewed out from halfway down a mountain. I love waterfalls, actually being around water generally, and this one was pretty spectular. A couple of photos later we were on our way again, only to halt once again by the side of the river we crossed over once we left the main road. We’d noticed when riding through the alps that one of the streams we followed was an amazing bluey-grey colour, and this was a river that was exactly the same! We had no idea whether it was because of being glacier run off or what, and later discovered that it was none other than the Rhone, so at some point we’ll do a little internet research to find out the cause.

Camping Moto to Chamonix in the Alps

I don’t know about the sun shining on the righteous, but we left Camping Moto in fantastic weather, determined to make it as far towards Switzerland as we comfortably could. We planned to use the more interesting roads again, but accepted that it might be necessary to use one or two bits of motorway if we were going to get close to Switzerland.

Stopped to enjoy the view

Well, what a fantastic ride! Some truly amazing roads through stunning scenery. It was a constant fight between concentrating on the road and taking in the breath-taking views. More than once I had to drag my eyes away from a fabulous vista as the road was disappearing around a steep hairpin with a rock face on one side and a steep drop on the other! At one point we saw our two neighbours from Crest coming flying around a bend in the opposite direction. Mr Ducati seemed to be right on the limit and determined to get every last bit of grip out of his worn tyre! His mate on the GS behind was more relaxed, and had time to wave back.

When it started to get late we decided to jump onto the motorway so that we could get to Chamonix, which is just on the French side of the Alps, before we stopped for the night. We rode around a sweeping bend onto an elevated section of motorway that suddenly became a twisting turning bridge hundreds of feet above the valley floor. Stunning and nothing like I have ever ridden on before.

We continued into the dusk and were suddenly presented with a breath-taking view of the last of the sun’s rays striking Mont Blanc. Unbelievably beautiful and one of those moments that makes you realise just how good it is to be alive. We spotted a parking area and were able to stop and take a couple of pictures. The light faded fast and the spectacle quickly disappeared. We had been in just the right place at just the right time 🙂

We got into Chamonix at 9pm and struggled to find anywhere remotely within our budget that had any vacancies. No problem if we had been prepared to spend 150 Euros for one night! The owner of one lovely 2 star hotel turned us away with apologies but came rushing out after us saying that she had made a mistake. She had put two people who were sharing a room down as being in separate rooms, so there was room at the inn. Excellent.

They stored our camping gear on the ground floor for us and we gratefully moved into an en-suite room on the top floor. What an interesting room, with wood panelling and a bath that extended into the eaves – that made sitting up in the bath rather interesting!

We ate and drank our provisions and Sarah had a soak in the bath (being careful not to hit her head), whilst I blogged on the laptop. After a while we fell into the lovely soft bed and drifted off to sleep with the moonlight shining on the alps outside our window and thoughts of Switzerland in our heads.

Vals-Les-Bains to Crest

We decided to take mostly minor roads on our journey from Vals-Les-Bains to Le Camping Moto near Crest for a couple of reasons. We wanted to enjoy the twisty less travelled roads and to see more of countryside that we were travelling through. Well it worked. The ride was great and we thoroughly enjoyed the road and the views.

Panorama visible from the road

Taking a break en-route

We kept on seeing bikers coming the other way who were either going for it or just grinning from ear to ear. The region is well known amongst European bikers as having fantastic roads, and they are right.

The weather kept fine and we pulled up at Le Moto Camping at about 5pm. We were given a warm welcome and a couple of cold drinks on arrival. It is run on very similar lines to Moto Camping Dordogne, not surprising I suppose given as both of the owners are Dutch! We bought drinks cards which get sections cancelled with each drink that you buy. A similar system to that run at our bike club’s rally, the Ridgeway MCC’s George to the Dragon Rally, as it saves messing about with change at the bar and speeds up service.

Interesting ornaments by the bar

The large bar opens out onto the pool area, where we relaxed on the sun loungers relaxing and enjoyed the evening sun. As we were planning on getting a reasonably prompt start the next day we opted to stay in one of their wooden chalets rather than put up the tent. Obviously it is much quicker and easier, and only cost 12 euros more than camping.

All of the other guests were Dutch but they were friendly and welcoming. The owner has an 850 T3 Moto Guzzi, although he is more into trials bike riding now, and our neighbour had a MkV Le Mans Moto Guzzi, but had chosen to come on his 900 Ducati in order to play on the region’s roads. He was complaining that he had nearly worn out his rear tyre and that it wouldn’t get him back to Holland, not surprising as he’d put it in on his previous visit to Le Moto Camping a year before!

We ate food that we had bought at a supermarket en-route, and enjoyed watching the bats swooping around having their meal at dusk.

After planning the route towards Switzerland and the Moto Guzzi Rally, we had an early night as we wanted to get moving reasonably early as we had some distance to cover over small and twisty roads.